Hey Buddy!

Hi everyone, I would like to introduce you to the newest member of my family.

My brand-spankin'-new, 15" MacBook Pro:

Hello, lover.

How did I come across this prized possession? Well, Allen and I went out for an early birthday dinner on Friday out at Partridge Creek. If any of you were in Michigan on Friday, you would remember that there were tornado and storm warnings going on all night, and it basically looked like a monsoon through the restaurant windows. After we finished up at Brio (ps - soooooooo yummy), Allen decided that he wanted to take a walk around the mall to "walk off dinner." I gently (ha) reminded him that it was a disaster outside, so he said we would stop and get an umbrella somewhere. So we walk out, it's only slightly drizzling...and then suddenly pouring all at once. So I gently (ha) again tell him we need to get inside now and we duck into the Apple store that was nearby. I then told him that I didn't think that the Apple store sold umbrellas, and then he suggested that we get my birthday present instead.

So, basically, I felt like a jerk for my ranting about the weather. But I don't think I've complained about anything since! :)

In true form, I moved on to the next important step: Naming the laptop. For those of you who don't know, my friends and I have a tendency to name many of the inanimate objects that we hold near and dear to our hearts. From cars, to computers, to laptops, to even purses or sunglasses, naming provides another level to the said object. With this in mind, I shall call him...Buddy!

Now I realize that this is a really crazy, extravagant gift from basically the best guy in the world (yeah, I said it). I'm a lucky girl, without a doubt, but don't think I didn't call Allen straight crazy for doing this, and that I didn't practically fight him on our walk over to the laptops. Of course, once I realized that he wasn't changing his mind, I easily gave in. He did say that his reasoning for getting me the laptop was three-fold: 1) My grad school classes are becoming increasingly Mac-driven, and it would be really helpful for my coursework and projects to have a computer that is compatible. 2) I'll be designing a lot of stuff in the near future, and Macs are obviously very design-friendly, so this will just make life a little easier. 3) He knew I really wanted it :)

Now I'm excited to dive into all of the capabilities of the laptop, utilize all of the tools, tutorials, videos, and tips that my fellow Mac-crazy comrades will share with me, and start some new projects!! More to come on that end!

Things going on

Ho man - I've been off of school for a solid 10 days, and I have to admit, I think I'm enjoying it a little too much right now. I can't believe my semester starts up again on Monday. I'm slightly regretting this whole "let's take two spring accelerated classes so I can have them done by June" thing. Yikesss. It's going to be a lot of work, but I'm hoping it will be worth it to have two more classes behind me and to get July and August off (even though July and August already seem to be filling pretty quickly here).

In other news - Lisa and Mike are married! WOO! Their wedding celebration was on Saturday, and when I say celebration, I mean celebration. Lisa looked gorgeous, there was wind (lots of it), but there was no rain! And there was eating, drinking, dancing, laughter, more drinking, some spills, catching up with lots of folks, and oh yeah...drinking. I know there were a few people hurting the next day, (and I don't just mean the bruises) but it was definitely one for the record books. My favorite picture for the night:

Man, do these guys know how to throw a party or what? :)

Congrats you two :) Now onto the next wedding, where the Keifer people are throwing the party, so you know it'll be a good one!

The next couple weeks will be filled with some exciting stuff as well - we'll be doing some training walks for the 3-Day (you can still donate at our links on this page too, by the way!), Allen got me tickets to the Goo Goo Dolls (my fav) for my birthday so we'll be going to that next week, and most importantly, Allen and I will be going to visit my sister in Florida for my birthday as well!! I'm so excited to go down there, I haven't even seen her place yet. We have a whole weekend full of activities, and it is going to be a blast, I can't wait. She has also been kind enough to continue to send me pictures of her pool in Florida, which is cute now, but will get annoying in the winter ;)